BERNARD J. WRIGHT AND D. ALLEN RUTHERFORD, Louisiana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit, School of Forestry Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

Four species of fish were selected as a group of piscivores that collectively span range of habitats available within the Atchafalaya River basin. White bass Morone chrysops were considered specialists for normoxic lake and river water, while spotted gar Lepisosteus occulatus and bowfin Amia calva represent the other end of the continuum as hypoxic water specialists in bayous and swamps. Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides were considered to be habitat generalists. On the basis of available literature, we predicted that fishes foraging in flooded swamp sites would feed predominantly on crawfish and that diet overlap of piscivores in lakes would be different from those in canals. We collected fishes by electrofishing, gillnetting and angling from lake, canal and flooded swamp sites. Fish diets were compared to determine diet similarity among species and between habitat types. We also examined the importance of host diet, habitat and phylogenetic relationships in structuring parasite assemblages in these fish species.